Mindshare to focus on digital and consumer insights: Ravi Rao

Rao, leader, Mindshare South Asia, has a strong vision of providing the best 360 degree marketing solutions to the agency's clients.

Ravi Rao, leader, Mindshare South Asia, is confident of bringing the best that Mindshare has to offer as a trusted advisor to clients in the marketing arena.

Speaking to afaqs!, Rao says, "The idea will be to continue with the focus on delivering the best return on investment (RoI) solutions to our rich portfolio of clients. Moreover, we will continue to work across all categories, while at the same time, ensure that we provide tailored solutions to each of the businesses we handle."

Rao gives the example of Nike, which is more business-driven as compared to clients who are more activation-driven, and says that for such clients, the agency creates a unique solution from its reservoir of resources and delivers the best.

Going forward, the agency will continue to focus on two areas -- digital and consumer insights. Rao explains, "We have processes and measurement tools to gauge the performance of digital campaigns. For example, Dashboard, (a measurement tool) introduced by our agency, gives complete RoI of a digital campaign. The campaign and its effectiveness, along with RoI, can be measured from the moment it is launched."

Secondly, Rao says, it is the Mindshare 'point-of-view', through which the agency provides its point of view on technology. "When Google+ was launched, we had shared our point of view," says Rao.

Another area of concentration for the agency will be to provide consumer insights. According to Rao, the media agency will continue to bring out many more consumer insights on the behaviour patterns of women and the youth.

As the world turns into one big community brought together by technology, and with global communication being much easier today, the role of traditional media planning and buying agencies, too, has evolved. It's no longer about providing specialist solutions, but more about providing a 360 degree solution.

"The role of the traditional media planning and buying agency is diminishing with the rise of different forms of media. With the trend of open sourcing spreading fast, it's all about offering a full-fledged idea. We have always followed the strategy of complete solution, and will continue to do so in the future."